Genres
Genre fiction
Fiction written with the intent of fitting into a specific literary genre, to appeal to readers already familiar with that genre's conventions.
Genre fiction, also called formula fiction or commercial fiction, is fiction written with the intent of fitting into a specific literary genre, in order to appeal to readers and fans already familiar with that genre. Its main shelves are crime, fantasy, romance, science fiction, horror, westerns and historical fiction. The label commonly implies a work that places more value on plot and entertainment than on character development, a framing critics have contested; Stephen King's 2003 National Book Award medal and Doris Lessing's defense of science fiction are the standard flashpoints of that argument.
For novel and web-serial writers, genre is a reader contract: fans arrive knowing the conventions, so meeting, delaying or subverting each one is a deliberate choice to signal or to betray. The shelf sits against literary fiction on the spectrum mapped in the guide to commercial, literary and upmarket fiction, and the blended middle ground has its own label, upmarket.